Volume 24 Refuge Number 1 Urban Refugees: Introduction Anita Fábos and Gaim Kibreab Introduction regional processes of urbanization, increased population nterest in refugees who live in urban settings, especially movements globally, and the development of transnational those of the global south, has developed fairly recently, spaces, and urban refugees are caught in the middle. These Ialthough refugees themselves have always been part of policies that attempt to make the presence of refugees in urban society. In 2002, the Forced Migration and Refugee urban—and national—settings illegitimate are counter- Studies program at the American University in Cairo held a productive inasmuch as they try to counteract irresistible workshop to explore some of the methodological and ethical demographic trends. issues implicit in doing research among urban refugee popu- In what follows we show that urbanization is an irre- lations in developing societies. Many of the papers in this versible process in the African context, and that the move- issue developed from this initial endeavour. However, it was ment of refugees to urban areas can only make sense in this evident that the contributing authors had concerns with the context. Furthermore, state policies of segregation, securiti- systemic context for urban refugees that went beyond the zation, and criminalization of urban refugees are inextricably epistemological aspects of the research process. In particu- linked to the objectives of states to create and perpetuate lar, the experiences of refugees in the cities described by differences between insiders and outsiders—of which citi- contributors—Kampala, Cairo, Johannesburg, Khar- zenship is a key determinant. Generally, refugee law is the toum—are characterized by a high level of vulnerability exception to domestic immigration law because it allows stemming from arbitrary and schizophrenic international certain people to enter the territories of other states without protection policies deriving from anxieties embodied by the a visa or other requirements. In Africa, however, refugee law nation-state system. is used as an instrument of exclusion and separation– but This special issue is devoted to the analyses of political, only to hold up exclusive nationalitylaw (Kagan in thisissue). social, economic, and legal barriers for refugees in urban As Kibreab points out in this issue, in nearly all developing settings, particularly as these shape the opportunities, countries, refugees are received as temporary guests until the strategies, vulnerabilities, and livelihoods of refugees in conditions that prompted their displacement are eliminated. African cities. We are interested in framing the central Once the political conditions that caused displacement cease, thrusts of the contributions through considering regional refugees are expected to return home regardless of the dura- urbanization, shifts in global patterns of refugee move- tion of exile. Spatial segregation of refugees is seen as an ments, and transnationalism. State policies concerning im- important instrument of preventing refugees’ integration migration, naturalization, and citizenship produce some of into host societies by prolonging their refugee status. This the structural factors shaping these complex developments, strategy is defeated if refugees are settled in urban area, and although to a large degree they are the inevitable result of helps explain why host countries in the South regulate the globalization processes. The scholars whose work is repre- presence of refugees in urban areas. sented here provide research-based evidence that policies Finally, the authors in this issue describe the ways in designed to manage the symptoms of refugees “out of which refugees carve out a space under adverse conditions place” are unable to accommodate the fundamental chal- not simply by reacting to unfavourable state policies and lenge refugees pose to the nation-state system. practices but also through creative engagement and mobi- Clearly, state policies that tighten up borders, reduce lization of social networks in search of viable livelihoods, immigration, and limit access to citizenship are at odds with often with a transnational dimension, against all odds. 3 Volume 24 Refuge Number 1 The urban spaces where the human consequences of activities by hiding their true identity. In Sudan, for exam- these ongoing developments are most starkly apparent are ple, according to the Sudanese Asylum Act 1974 refugees the cities of the global South. The authors of these papers are prohibited from leaving the officially designated places have chosen to emphasize the African context for the dra- of residence. They are also not allowed to own property or matic contrast between global and regional developments to leave government-designated sites without permission. that support increased migration and population control There are tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees, especially policies that stem from the rationale of the nation-state. those who share common traits of ethnicity, religion, lan- The rapid expansion of Cairo, for example, from a city of guage, and way of life with some members of the local half a million people in the 1940s to the eighteen million community in Eastern Sudan who own property, who live plus of today is largely due to rural-urban migration. The in the cities, move freely and engage in diverse income-gen- Egyptian state has sought to control and counteract this erating activities in defiance of the formal government process through denying permission for house-building, policies. Most of this would have been unachievable in a slum-clearing, relocation of wholesale markets where rural rural setting, where people generally know each other and migrants make a living to the desert beyond city limits, and associate with one another on the basis of common resi- other mechanisms of urban planning. The population of dence or descent. Khartoum, on the other hand, has swelled due to famine This does not, however, suggest that all African refugees and war in other parts of the country; the Sudanese govern- can escape the tyranny of being “othered” by simply relo- ment has reacted by criminalizing begging, bulldozing set- cating themselves to cities. Whilst in some African contexts, tlements of displaced Sudanese and moving their people to such as Kassala, Kigoma, and even Dar es Salaam,2 refugees more distant sites, among other things. In both cases, mov- are able to hide among urban populations, passing for ing to the capital city represents access to security, services, nationals, in others they make up a visible minority. Suda- and opportunities for citizens whose governments seek to nese, Eritrean, and Congolese refugees in Cairo are rou- keep them in the provinces without any regard to their tinely singled out for harassment by security forces as well physical safety and well-being. as ordinary Egyptians. In either case, however, refugees are Refugees who join the steady advance of people moving unambiguously distinguished from citizens by their legal to African and other Southern cities go for particular rea- status, rendering them ineligible for services and dependent sons related to their search for safety, access to international on the beneficence of the state for residency rights. As links (to receive remittances, for example), and options for non-citizens, they are not perceived as part of the national resettlement. However, the explorations of refugee experi- interest—they are seen as foreign objects in the body poli- ences and livelihoods offered by contributors to this issue tic—and most policies are designed to control, contain, and additionally illustrate that refugees choose urban areas for segregate them from the rest of the population. The acqui- the same reasons as citizens do. Even in the most poor escence of their fellow urbanites to these policies is achieved countries in Africa, the relationship between urban and through state discourses and practices presenting refugees rural areas is marked by uneven development and skewed as a threat in terms of state and societal security, competi- distribution of opportunities for income-generation, edu- tion for limited resources, and the personal safety of citi- cation, health care, housing, clean water supply, and sani- zens. We turn now to a discussion of state practices of tation, as well as transportation. Evidence abounds that the spatial segregation, securitization, and criminalization of level of income earned by urban dwellers, including those refugees in Africa with reference to international legal who live in slum areas, is higher than in rural areas. As mechanisms designed to inhibit refugees moving to cities. might be expected, refugees—like other people—are stra- tegic decision makers and may “vote with their feet” en The Tyranny of Spatial Segregation route for cities where chances of staying on the right side of The presence of refugees in urban areas is invariably op- the razor’s edge of survival are better. posed by governments in nearly all African receiving coun- Another attraction of the city is the opportunity for tries, with few exceptions.3 On the rest of the continent, anonymity. In comparison to national urban dwellers, the governments place refugees in spatially segregated sites number of refugees in African cities is insignificant and, as wherever possible. From the narrow perspective of state a result, they may be able to melt into the urban throng by interest, there are ostensibly